Patricia Barber: A Fortnight In France (2004)

How we rate: our writers tend to review music they like within their preferred genres.

The modern mainstream has many champions. Patricia Barber is one of them. With her quartet, she worked concert halls for two weeks in Paris, Metz, Nice, and La Rochelle this past March and April to demonstrate for French audiences that we continue to experience surges of growth in the art formas long as freedom of expression remains unhampered by social restrictions.

Paris, after all, was once considered the art capital of the world. Throughout several centuries, artists from many fields of practice have flocked to that part of the world to bathe in the glow of the area's artistic freedom.

She sings convincingly, with a deep, contralto resonance that gets you right down in your mind's heart. David Raksin's "Laura" will never be forgotten. Barber gives it a fluid interpretation that puts tears in your eyes.

The favorite standard, "Witchcraft," is performed as an instrumental, with a familiar attitude. Barber's original "Crash," also interpreted as an instrumental number, rocks the house with its fiery appeal and forward-looking ambition. Neal Alger, Michael Arnapol and Eric Montzka give the pianist solid support. Even the rocking piano solo that she employs to punctuate the lyrics of "Norwegian Wood," finds its path to creative improvisation natural and fulfilling.